Falling Feathers: Traveling Carnival
by ourheroregina
Summary: Written for Inspired by OQ 2019, first entry. Inspired by the gorgeous art by CarolinaMR9. Robin and Regina visit the traveling carnival.


**Inspired by OQ 2019, first entry.** This piece is inspired by the gorgeous art by CarolinaMR9. You can find it here - /CarolinaMR9/status/1134782978687680512

This one-shot is set in my unpublished Young OQ AU, I hope you'll like it!

(...)

Regina looks around the traveling carnival and sighs. Groups of people are walking past her, all of them laughing and talking loudly and despite her best efforts to ignore the certain part of her brain, it still screams at her loud and clear to run away. But she doesn't. Instead she sits tight just like Robin asked her to while he disappeared in a crowd of people.

She's not a huge fan of social gatherings, usually she avoids it, but when Robin knocked on her door this morning, telling her that the carnival has arrived into the town and that she has to put it on her list of things she wants to do, she couldn't say no. It wasn't the possibility of adding and checking another thing out of her list that made her agree, though; it was the smile and giddiness of Robin.

After a few minutes of sitting on the uncomfortable bench, Regina finally notices Robin makes his way back towards her with popcorns and a soda in his hands. A smile on his face is ridiculous, and if she didn't know any better, she would think that he was a five year-old who just visited the carnival for the first time.

"You're such a child," Regina snorts, a teasing smirk making its way onto her face when Robin approaches her.

"What can I say? There's nothing better than popcorns and soda from the carnival," he shrugs as he finally sits on the bench beside her. "But wait, how would you know that if you'd never been to a carnival before."

Regina rolls her eyes at his teasing, and takes a handful of popcorns from him.

"I was trying to impress you today, you know." Robin says out of nowhere. Regina's head snaps towards him immediately, the confusion written all over her face. Robin clears his throat when he sees her expression and scratches the back of his neck before admitting, "I came up with the idea of adding a carnival to your list because I really wanted to ask you out, like on a date, you know, but I knew that you wouldn't agree."

His words make Regina's breath hitch in her throat as she averts her gaze from Robin's. They've been friends for more than half a year and the friendship keeps growing stronger and stronger, but Regina's made it rather clear that it's just friendship, nothing more. And Robin's agreed to it, but then he added, rather sheepishly that if she ever wanted it to change he would be more than willing to date her.

She hasn't changed her opinion, though.

Robin must've realized that the atmosphere turned into an awkward one, and it has him sighing and apologizing quietly, telling her that he didn't mean to make her uncomfortable and that he'll never mention it again.

But it's been such a great day, even with all the people around them, even with the way her heart would start to drum in her chest every time she was surrounded by voices, and all of it is thanks to Robin. There's no harm in trying to brighten the mood, right?

"You were really trying to impress me with _that?_" she asks, turning to look him in the eye. "I thought you knew me well enough to know that I don't care about scenes from the romantic movies."

"What do you care about?" Robin asks immediately.

"You know what," she trails off, feeling her cheeks heating up. He's humoring her, she knows, just like she's humoring him, but it still feels way more than their casual conversations in the middle of the night.

"Tell me."

Regina sighs and finally says, "I care about conversations, knowledge. You can impress me with topics about literature, climate change or whatever it is you're passionate about much more easily than by dragging me all the way here."

"I am passionate about carnival," Robin insists, making Regina smile a bit at him. He's such a fool, that's why she likes him so much. "Did I tell you that I used to come to every carnival that arrived to our town? It was our family's tradition. I haven't been here in eleven years."

"Why did you decide to do it now?" she asks. Talking about the life of his family before it fell apart is not his favorite topic, but he's sharing things with her, and it means a lot to her, because she's shared with him a lot too.

"Because you're my closest friend now and I think of you as a family. I thought it was time to revive the old tradition."

"Robin-"

"I'm glad that you agreed." Robin tells her sincerely. "It's good to change bad memories with the good ones."

Regina smiles at him before scooting closer and leaning against him, her head resting on his shoulder. "I'm glad you invited me."

"So, how was my speech? Did it impress you?" he asks, changing the topic back to easy things.

Pulling away from him, she smirks and says, "Perhaps you already have done that. Otherwise I wouldn't have agreed to come with you here."

"Bullshit." He shakes his head. "You came here because you're too good to say no to such a loser like me."

"Perhaps." Robin laughs at that, and Regina cannot help but smile too. "To tell the truth, I'm glad I agreed to come here with you today," she says after a moment of silence. "I really appreciate you asking me to go with you. You know how much our friendship means to me."

"I'm glad you agreed to come." He tells her, a smile stretching over his face. "Otherwise I would have never found out that you had a funny side in that stone cold soul."

Regina shakes her head at him in disbelief, but the smile never leaves her face. "You're an idiot."

"That's why you like me so much."

"True," she agrees, laughing.

Robin winks at her before grabbing her by the hand and dragging for another one of amusement rides, making sure that she has the time of her life and that stupid traveling carnival thing was worth putting on her list.

They finish eating the popcorns and then they finally make their way back home. When Regina is laying in her quiet apartment later than night, she realizes that it's the best day she's had in a really, really long time.


End file.
